Portable wireless gateway for remote medical examination

ABSTRACT

A remote monitoring system that includes a portable measuring device that can be coupled to a portable wireless gateway. The portable measuring device obtains measurements including physiological data, movement data and ambient measurements and provides these measurements to the portable wireless gateway. The portable wireless gateway can interface with a networked personal computer through an USB connector. Once interfaced to the computer, the measurement data can be loaded into the computer and delivered to a central system through the networked personal computer. The system enables the monitoring of a user&#39;s medical information to allow diagnostics of the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is filed in the United States Patent and TrademarkOffice under 35 USC. 111 and 37 CFR 1.53(b) as a continuationapplication of, and under 35 U.S.C. 120 claims the benefit of, the U.S.patent application that was filed on Oct. 30, 2006 and assigned Ser. No.10/522,112, which application was filed under 35 U.S.C. 371 and claimingthe benefit of the priority of United States Provisional Patent forApplication filed on Apr. 8, 2003 and assigned Ser. No. 60/461,319through Patent Cooperation Treaty international application numberPCT/IL2004/000316 filed on Apr. 7, 2004, both bearing the title of “APORTABLE WIRELESS GATEWAY FOR REMOTE MEDICAL EXAMINATION,” the subjectmatter of each of these applications is hereby incorporated byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of remote medicalexaminations for subjects, particularly in a non-medical environment,such as the home or office or even within an “Internet Cafe”.Preferably, the present invention is operable by individuals who are notmedically trained, such as by the subject himself or herself.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Currently, a number of different types of devices are available fornon-invasive monitoring of human subjects. For example, the heartfunction can be monitored in a subject through the use of electrodes,which must be attached to the skin of the subject. Althoughnon-invasive, such equipment is nevertheless uncomfortable for thesubject, who is attached to a network of cables and wired sensors. Inaddition, such equipment is very expensive, limiting its use tohospitals and other medical settings in which both the cost and thediscomfort of the subject can be justified. Furthermore, discomfort andthe overwhelming technological appearance of current monitoring systemsmay result in the subjects becoming anxious when examined by medicalpersonnel, thereby significantly altering the normal readings for thesesubjects.

However, there are many different situations in which non-invasivemonitoring of a human subject is desired. For example, such monitoringcould be very useful as part of the overall health maintenance of thehuman subject, and could be used in order to detect any type ofdeterioration in the physiological condition of the subject before aconcomitant deterioration in the health of the subject becomesnoticeable. Examples of adverse physiological conditions which could bedetected with regular non-invasive monitoring include, but are notlimited to, excessive weight gain or weigh loss; arrhythmia and otherheart conditions; incipient diabetes in the form of improper glucosemetabolism; and the loss of lung capacity or other problems withrespiration.

Heart rate and blood pressure are important factors in determining thestate of a person's health and the physical condition of a person's bodyin response to physical or emotional stress. Periodic monitoring ofthese physical parameters is particularly important for individualshaving cardiac disease and/or lowered cardiac functioning, or high bloodpressure. However, physically healthy individuals may also wish toperiodically monitor their heart rate and blood pressure in stressfulsituations, for example when engaging in strenuous exercise or in work.

In order to support regular monitoring of human subjects in their normalenvironment, such as in the home and at the office for example, theequipment must be non-invasive and easy to use. The equipment would thenbe able to monitor at least one physiological parameter of the user,without requiring the user to perform any complicated actions and/or tooperate complex devices. Indeed, it would be highly preferred for theequipment to be incorporated as part of the regular daily living routineof the subject, since the requirement for any additional or specialactions on the part of human subject is likely to result in decreasedcompliance. In addition, the equipment should be robust yet inexpensive.

For ease of use, monitoring equipment carried by the user may be used.Such monitoring equipment is required to be ready for receiving animpromptu call initiated by a medical center. However, keeping themonitoring equipment active and ready to receive a call results inreducing the lifetime of its battery. Therefore there is a need for asystem that enables the Medical Service Center to make an impromptu callto the monitoring equipment, while the monitoring equipment is notactive (i.e., in a sleeping mode) without losing the information that istransferred from the Medical Service Center to the monitoring equipment.

Furthermore, preferably the subject should be able to transmit thecollected medical information and to communicate verbally with medicalpersonnel. Also, medical personnel should be able to view the subjectand the data being collected. In order to make the remote medicalservice available to wide variety of users the communication withmedical personal may be carried over a common communication link such asregular telephone lines.

Common remote medical examination systems may include at least one pieceof monitoring equipment carried by the user. The monitoring equipmentcommunicates over a wireless communication channel with a gateway. Onthe other side, the gateway communicates to a computer at a centralservice center using common communication protocols such as InternetProtocol (IP) over common telephone line, ISDN etc. Such a remotemedical examination system is disclosed in PCT applicationsPCT/IL02/00994 or in PCT/IL02/00995, the contents of which areincorporated herein by reference. The advantage of such a system is thatthe user may move freely and do the normal activities that he or she isused to do while the system may monitor the subject's physicalconditions. However, these systems are stationary and require someinstallation procedure and needs. Therefore the user may enjoy thesystem only while staying in the site where the system is installed, forinstance in the subject's home or office.

In addition each user may have some personal data, such as: user'smedical file history, special measuring programs, escalation proceduresetc. It can be beneficial for a user if this information may be portablewith the user and valid in case that the user is far from the site inwhich the remote system is installed. For example, in case that the useris in hospital, the medical personal there may have access to the systemas well as to the personal medical files.

Therefore there is a need for a portable system and a method for medicalmonitoring system that may communicate with a medical service center.Such a system will spread the opportunity of a user to benefit from hismedical services in variety of locations such as home, work, hotelshospitals etc. In addition, there is a need for a system in whichpersonal medical data may be carried by the user.

Throughout this description the term “computer” includes, but is notlimited to, Personal Computer (PC), laptop, notebook, palm computer,cellular phone etc. Henceforth, the description of the present inventionmay use the term ‘PC’ as a representative term for any of the abovegroup or similar type system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the current art byproviding a wireless portable gateway that may be connected to a commonconnector of a PC such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector. On theother hand, the wireless portable gateway may communicate with at leastone portable measuring equipment device by using RF communication. TheRF communication may be based on standards protocols such as Bluetoothor IEEE 802.11 (wireless LAN) or on a similar or proprietary protocol.

Such a portable gateway may have the shape of a USB flash memory diskwith an internal or external antenna. The product is easily carried andinstalled by the user using the USB plug and play capabilities.

Other embodiments of the present invention may use other types ofconnectors/protocols rather than the USB. For example, other embodimentsmay use FIREWIRE or RS232 etc. Henceforth, the description of thepresent invention may use the term ‘USB’ as a representative term forany of the above group. Furthermore, the present invention is notlimited to the shape of a USB flash memory disk and other shapes mayalso be used. Those embodiments may be connected directly to the PCconnector or via a cable or a docking station. The embodiments may usethe power coming from the PC connector or from external source orbattery.

The PC may communicate with the medical center over any network solutionsuch, as but not limited to, an Internet Protocol based network such asthe Internet, Intranet, LAN etc. over communication links such as atelephone line, cellular, ISDN, ADSL etc. The PC may be used as aninterface node on the communication link or may also be used as themonitor and the controller of the medical examination system, at theuser site. In parallel to medical examination activities the PC mayperform its common tasks.

The portable wireless gateway (PWG) may have a nonvolatile memory, suchas but not limited to flash memory, EEPROM, RAM, etc. In an embodimentof the present invention the nonvolatile memory may contain theoperating software that runs over the PC that is used as a host PC forcommunicating and controlling the medical measuring system at the user'scurrent location. Such an embodiment may have two stages during itsinstallation. At the first stage the PWG emulates a nonvolatile memorydevice, such as but not limited to a USB flash memory disk. Afterplugging the PWG to the USB plug, the user may use it as a USB flashmemory disk and loads the operating software with or without a driver tothe PC or the operating software may download and initialize itselfautomatically into the host PC computer. Then during the second stage,the medical measuring system is activated, using the operating softwarethat was loaded to the host computer.

In other embodiments, the nonvolatile memory may include, in addition tothe operating software or instead of the operating software, personaldata such as, but not limited to, personal information, medical history,medical properties, statistical data of previous measurements, dataregarding the physical condition of the user, special sensitivities ofthe user to medicines etc. In some embodiments, part or all of thepersonal data may be encrypted.

Other embodiments may use external media to store the operatingsoftware. For example, an exemplary embodiment may use CD ROM to storethe operating software at the user's location. In such an embodiment,the operating software is loaded first into the PC from the CD ROM andthen the PWG is plugged to the PC's connector. Or in some cases, uponplugging the PWG, the PC senses that a new hardware device is plugged inand requests the user to install the operating software of the newdevice from the CD ROM. In other embodiment of the present invention theoperating software of the medical measuring system may be downloaded viathe Internet.

In some embodiments of the present invention the PWG may includeauthentication and/or encryption capabilities. In some embodiments, theuser may configure the PC to avoid storing medical information over itslocal disc. Instead or simultaneously any medical information may bestored in the PWG.

In other embodiments of the present invention, the nonvolatile memorymay include an authentication code for authenticating the user to theservice center. Such authentication may be protected using an encryptionprotocol.

In some embodiments of the present invention the PC may have audiovisualcapabilities enabling the user to communicate with the call center.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the PWG may alsocommunicate with other standard wireless domestic sensors, such as smokedetectors and burglar alarms, thus the PWG may receive theirtransmission and activate the operation software on the PC to alert theuser, for example, by sending him an SMS message to his cellular phoneor by alerting the call center using its computer network capabilities.

Thus it is evident that the present invention, by utilizing a portablewireless gateway (PWG) that can be connected to any PC (an item which ispresent in many houses, offices, hospitals etc.). The PC is preferablyconnected to the Internet, enables the owner of the PWG to enjoy themedical measuring services in a plurality of locations.

It should be noted that the terms “home”, “remote”, “user's site”,“user's location” and “office” are used interchangeably herein and areused as examples only, in order to indicate the use of the presentinvention outside of a professional medical environment, and are notintended to be limiting in any way.

It should be noted that the terms “subject”, “user” and “patient” areused interchangeably herein. And that the terms “Medical ServiceCenter”, “Call Center” and “Medical Center” are used interchangeablyherein.

Hereinafter, the terms “microprocessor”, “computational device” and“computer” includes, but is not limited to, a general-purposemicroprocessor, a DSP, a micro-controller or a special ASIC, hardware, acombination of hardware and software and/or firmware, designed for thatpurpose.

The method of the present invention could be described as a process forbeing performed by a data processor, and as such could optionally beimplemented as software, hardware or firmware, or a combination thereof.For the present invention, a software application could be written insubstantially any suitable programming language, which could easily beselected by one of ordinary skill in the art. The programming languagechosen should be compatible with the computational device (computerhardware and operating system) according to which the softwareapplication is executed. Examples of suitable programming languagesinclude, but are not limited to, Visual Basic, Assembler, Visual C,standard C, C++ and Java.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent upon reading the following detailed description of theembodiments with the accompanying drawings and appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is herein described, by way of example only, withreference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a system according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the PWG part of the systemaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram illustrating the installation of thePWG of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an exemplary flow diagram illustrating the removal of the PWG.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals refer to likeparts throughout the several views, exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention are described.

The present invention is of a portable system and method for enablingmedical data collection to be performed remotely, at the user location,while the user may easily carry the system, install and operate it indifferent locations. In each of these locations, there is a PC, whichmay be connected to a communication network that may access the centralserver, such as the Internet. In some locations in which the PC hasaudio/visual capabilities, the system may also permit Audio/Videoconferencing between the subject and the medical personnel. Where the PCis not connected on-line to the network, it may store the medical dataand forward it to the central server when the link becomes on-line,alternately it may store the data within its local disk or on thenonvolatile memory permanently or temporarily to be retrieved later bythe user or by a medical personnel.

More specifically, the present invention is of an apparatus, whichfeatures bi-directional communication for transferring medical data withmedical personnel operated Call Center, alternately or simultaneously,to a central server. The communication may be carried over anycommunication network such as the Internet via regular telephone line,ISDN, ADSL, CABLE TV, Cellular or any other type of physical network.The PC in which the apparatus is connected may be integrated with audioand video conferencing between a remote (home, “Internet Cafe” andoffice) subject and a medical service center. The invention isparticularly useful for subjects having some type of medical risk whowishes to be supervised by a medical service center from numerouslocations as long there is a PC with a USB connector or similarlyfunctional connector and a network connection available.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the system of thepresent invention features a remote apparatus and a medical servicecenter with central server, which operates to enable remote monitoringfor a subject at the home or other locations. The medical examinationsmay include visual and verbal communication and examinations with atwo-way audio and video channel for enabling conversation between thesubject and medical personnel at a medical service center.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of a system according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention. As shown, a system 100features a wearable device 101 to be worn by a user, or a wirelessmedical device for measuring at least one physiological parameter of theuser. Wearable device 101 may be as a wrist-mounted device, for exampleby being attached with a wristband or other fastening article to thewrist of the user; however, it should be understood that the device canbe attached to clothing, carried in a pocket or attached to other partsof the body as well. The present invention enables such a measurement topreferably be transformed into medical information about the user. Suchinformation may be sent through a portable wireless gateway 210 via USBconnection, or similarly functional connection, 212 to PC 220. PC 220may or may not process the received information and transfers the dataover the computer network 180 to central server 187. The information mayalso be delivered to medical personnel (for example at a call center185). The call center 185 and the central server 187 may be in the samesite and may be connected over a LAN or INTERNET.

As previously noted, the present invention is not limited to wearabledevice. Other measuring equipment 190 a to 190 c may be used such as,but not limited to, scale, EGC, blood pressure measuring device,glucometer, smoke detectors, etc. Portable wireless gateway 210 maycommunicate with one or more measuring equipment devices 190 a to 190 c.Computer network 180 may be any network solution such as, but notlimited to, Internet Protocol based network as the Internet, Intranet,LAN etc. over communication links such as telephone line, cellular,ISDN, ADSL etc. Henceforth, the description of the present invention mayuse the term ‘Internet’ as a representative term for any of the computernetwork solutions.

Examples of medical information which may be extracted from the measuredphysiological parameter or parameters include, but are not limited to:heart rate; heart rate regularity; breathing rate; arrhythmia of theheart (if any), as well as the general rhythm and functioning of theheart; blood pressure (systolic and diastolic); presence of abnormalbody movements such as convulsions for example; body position; falldetection; general body movements; body temperature; presence and levelof sweat; oxygen saturation in the blood; and glucose levels in theblood.

The PWG 210 may communicate with the wearable device 101 of the presentinvention through a wireless communication channel. The wirelesscommunication may be based on common standards such as, but not limitedto, Bluetooth, wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11) or proprietary protocol. Otherembodiments may use IR communication instead of RF communication betweenthe wearable device 101 and the PWG 210. The PWG may convert theinformation coming from the wearable device into the format that fit thecommunication over USB.

PWG 210 is described in detail herein below in conjunction with FIGS. 2,3 and 4. Additional information about the operation of wearable device101, call center 185 and the central server 187 is disclosed in PCTapplications PCT/IL01/01187; PCT/IL02/00285; PCT/IL02/00995;PCT/IL02/00994 the contents of which are incorporated herein byreference.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the PWG, thewearable device or the medical device may also measure other parametersthat may affect the subject's physical condition, including but notlimited to, ambient temperature and humidity, lighting conditions, smokeand/or other material in the air, user location, distance from home etc.

The present invention may feature a manually/automatically activatedmedical measurement signal that may be initiated by the subject himself,by PC 220, or from the call center 185. The activate signal from thecall center is transferred over the Internet 180 through PC 220 forbeing transmitted through the PWG 210. In some cases the activate signalmay be used as an alarm signal in order to indicate an emergency orotherwise dangerous situation for the user. The activate/alarm signalmay optionally be transmitted in the reverse direction according to amanual action of the user, such as pressing a “panic button” 116 forexample.

Most preferably, the alarm signal is transmitted automatically uponmeasurement of the one or more physiological parameters of the user,preferably even if the user is unable to press the panic button.Optionally, the alarm signal may be given to the user, additionally oralternatively, for example by sounding an audible alarm, more preferablyfrom the wrist-mounted device itself. Upon receipt ofmanually/automatically activated medical measurement of the user, thePWG may store it on its local nonvolatile memory module 240 or transferit the host PC 220 to be stored there on its local hard disk or to betransferred further on to the central server 187 to be stored andanalyzed. PC 220, after receiving and processing the message may returnthe processed information to the PWG 210 in order to store in thenonvolatile memory of the PWG 210.

Upon receipt of the manually/automatically activated alarm signal viaPWG 210, the PC 220 would preferably initiate immediately a call to ahuman operated call center 185. Then the PC 220 may instruct, via PWG210, the user to manually activate the wearable device 101 to collectone or more current physiological measurements of the user. Thesemeasurements may be sent directly to PWG 210, or alternatively may beanalyzed, in the wearable device, in order to compute the medicalparameters of the user before sending the results to PC 220 via the PWG210. The PC 220 may analyze the measurement. The human operator, at themedical center, would then preferably be able to assess the user'smedical condition from the received information.

The wearable device 101 of the present invention may also monitor, atleast periodically but more preferably continuously, the value orcondition of one or more physiological parameters of the user.Continuous monitoring would more easily enable the device to transmitthe alarm signal if measurements of one or more physiological parametersare collected and analyzed by a microprocessor to form medicalinformation, which then could be determined to be above predefinedcriteria, such as unstable heart rate, or very high or low bloodpressure, for example.

According to a non-limiting exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, the wrist-mounted device 101 features one or more sensorsattached to a wristband or other fastening article. The sensor(s) arepreferably connected to a microprocessor, optionally by a wire butalternatively through a wireless connection. The microprocessor mayoptionally also be located within the wristband, or otherwise attachedto the wristband. The sensor(s) preferably support automatic collectionof at least one physiological measurement; more preferably, themicroprocessor is able to execute one or more instructions forextracting clinically useful information about the user from suchmeasurement(s).

The microprocessor more preferably operates a software program toprocess and analyze the data, which is collected, in order to delivermedical information. The measurement data, is then preferablytransferred via PWG 210 to PC 220. The PC 220 may relay such informationto a central server 187, which may be able to provide such informationto medical personnel, for example as part of a call center 185.Therefore, continuous monitoring of the physiological parameters of theuser may optionally and more preferably be made, enabling better medicalcare for the user.

A general, non-limiting example of suitable methods for measuring theheart rate and/or other heart-related physiological parameters of asubject who is wearing the device according to the present invention maybe found in the article “Cuff-less Continuous Monitoring of Beat-To-BeatBlood Pressure Using Sensor Fusion”, by Boo-Ho Yang, Yi Zhang and H.Harry Asada—IEEE (also available on the Internet by accessing theuniform resource locator address of“web<dot>mit<dot>edu/zyi/www/pdf/IEEETrans2000.pdf” as of Dec. 9, 2001),hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, wheresystolic and diastolic blood pressure are calculated using the pulsepressure shape per heartbeat. The disclosure does not describe a device,which has the functionality according to the present invention, but thedisclosed method is generally useful for determining blood pressure froman external measurement of pressure from the pulse through the skin ofthe subject.

Device 101 may have at least one physiological sensor 102 for measuringat least one physiological parameter of the user, a vibration sensor123, preferably a piezoceramic sensor, which is not in direct contactwith the skin of the user. Sensor 123 measures the movement of thewrist. The output of sensor 123 can be used by a processing unit 103 tocapture the movement of the wrist and to recover some noise received bysensor 102, which is caused by such movement.

Sensor 123 may be used for measuring the breath of the subject. Formeasuring the breath, the subject may be requested to put the hand (withthe wearable device 101) over the subject's abdomen. In this positionsensor 123 measures the movement of the abdomen, which is due to thesubject's breath.

Device 101 may include additional ambient sensors 130 such as but notlimited to a humidity sensor for measuring the ambient humidity. Anexemplary humidity sensor may be the Humidity Gauge manufactured byHoneywell.

In order to support processing of the measured physiological parameteror parameters, processing unit 103 may optionally include internal RAMand non-volatile program memory (not shown). Also processing unit 103may optionally include an extended data memory 105 located externally toprocessing unit 103. Processing unit 103 preferably executes at leastone instruction for processing the data obtained by sensor 102.

Examples of such processing units 103 include but are not limited toPIC18LC452 by Microchip Technology Inc., which contains 10 channels of10 bit A/D converters, a 1.5 K bytes of internal RAM and 32 K Bytes ofnon-volatile program memory.

Extended memory component 105 is preferably an electrically erasablenon-volatile external memory component. Examples of such a memorycomponent include but are not limited to FM24CL64-S (Ramtron, USA), with64 Kbit of fast access read/write serial memory for storing temporarydata related to the sampled physiological parameter.

Device 101 may have a real time clock 117 in order to provide anaccurate time and date for each measurement, as device 101 canoptionally store a few measurements before transmitting such data and/orinformation to PWG 210, as described in greater detail below. Real timeclock may also optionally be used for such applications as reminding thesubject to take medication, perform a prescheduled measurement, and soforth. An A/D converter 109 with multiple inputs may be utilized ifsensor 102 is an analog sensor, in order to convert the analog signal toa digital signal.

Device 101 may include a display unit or units 118 and/or 124. Thedisplay unit may be used for displaying messages coming from the CallCenter 185, alarm information, instructions to the user etc.

Device 101 may also optionally feature a watchdog 115, which monitorsthe function of device 101. If the end of a watchdog time period isreached, device 101 is assumed to have a fault in its operation, and amaster reset is preferably initiated automatically.

Device 101 preferably features an internal communication unit 104, forat least unidirectional, but more preferably bi-directional,communication with PWG 210. Communication unit 104 may act as aninterface module between processing unit 103 and the communicationprotocol that is used over the wireless connection 121 with PWG 210. Inaddition communication unit 104 may include the transmitter and thereceiver that are used for the wireless communication 121. Communication121 may be RF communication based on standard protocols such asBluetooth or IEEE 802.11 (wireless LAN) or on a proprietary protocol orother wireless communication methods such as IR. In case of using an RFproprietary protocol, the communication may be in any allocatedfrequency band but most preferably is in the unlicensed frequencyspectrum.

In order to save power and increase the life of the battery, wearabledevice 101 may be placed into a sleep mode for the majority of the time.The wearable device 101 can be awaked according to a prescheduledprogram that is sent from the medical center or by manual activation.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic block diagram of the PWG part of thesystem 200 according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention. The PWG section 200 of the system may comprise a PWG 210 anda PC 220 connected to the computer network 180. PC 220 may haveAudio/Visual capabilities. PWG 210 together with PC 220 act as theinterface between the user and/or the wearable device 101 (FIG. 1) andthe central server 187 and/or the call center 185. PC 220 may act as ahost platform having a USB host controller for controlling and managingall USB transfers on the USB bus.

PWG 210 may be implemented as a single unit that is plugged into the USBport of PC 220. PWG 210 may have the shape of a USB flash memory diskthat is illustrated in US design Pat. No. D 462,689 or D 468,090 thecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference. However thepresent invention is not limited to this shape, other embodiments of thepresent invention may have other shapes or may be connected to otherports of PC 220.

PWG 210 may comprise a USB module 230, a non-volatile memory module suchas flash memory, EEPROM, FRAM that may be logically divided into severalnon-volatile memory modules that are represented by three modules 240 ato 240 c, RF module 270, antenna 245, a memory 250,authentication/encryption module 280, and a processor/controller 260that controls the operation of the different modules of PWG 210. PWG 210may comprise two buses, a data bus 266 and a control bus 263 or anyother serial or parallel bus structure. In other embodiments of thepresent invention the two logical buses data bus 266 and a control bus263 may share the same physical bus.

PWG 210 collects medical data from at least one monitor equipment suchas wearable device 101 (FIG. 1) via wireless communication. The data issent to computer 220 over USB connection 212 and from PC 220 over thecomputer network 180 to the call center and/or the central server 187.

USB module 230 acts as the interface module between the controller 260of PWG 210 and PC 220. USB module 230 may include the physical interfacefor receiving and transmitting electrical signals to and from PC 220according to the communication protocol and a logical interface fordecoding the address, synchronizing the signals and communicating withthe controller 260. The incoming packets from PC 220 are parsed andtransferred to controller 260 over the internal buses 266 and/or 263. Inthe other direction information from the controller 260 are received byUSB module 230, packetized according to the USB protocol and sent overthe USB 212 port to the PC 220. In case of using other type ofcommunication port than USB, such as RS232, then USB module 230 may bereplaced by an appropriate module.

Nonvolatile memory Module (NVMM) 240 a-204 c may be divided into severallogical non-volatile memory modules. NVMM 240 a may store the softwarethat controls the operation of controller 260. NVMM 240 b may store theoperating software that is used by PC 220 for controlling the operationof the user site. This software may be loaded into PC 220 immediatelyafter connecting the PWG 210 to the USB port 212. NVMM 240 c may be usedfor storing the personal information of the user. The personalinformation may include authentication data of the user as well asmedical information, such as the file history of the user, currentresults of medical measurements, the schedule for taking medicine,sensitivity information about medicines, or any type of data that mayhelp a medical personal that take care of the user. The presentinvention is not limited to 3 modules of NVMM 240 a to 240 c and anyother number of modules may be used. The operation of NVMM 240 iscontrolled by processor 260. Exemplary NVMM may be built of nonvolatilememory, such as but not limited to flash memory, EEPROM, FRAM, a sectionof NVMM 240 may be built of non-erasable memory modules such as EPROM,PROM, etc.

RF module 270 is used as the complementary communication unit to thecommunication unit 104 (FIG. 1) of the wearable device. RF module 270may comprise an interface unit (not shown) that converts the data comingfrom the internal bus 266 and/or 263 according to the RF communicationprotocol and vice versa. The interface unit is connected in one side tobus 266 and/or 263 and on the other end to RF transmitter/receiver (notshown). The RF transmitter/receiver is connected to an antenna 245 thatmay be an external antenna or an internal antenna. RF module 270 andcommunication unit 104 may use a standard RF protocol, such as Bluetoothor IEEE 802.11 (wireless LAN) or any other technology or proprietaryprotocol. The RF frequency may be 433 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz or any otherfrequency that may be used for such an application.

Other exemplary embodiments of the present invention may use wirelesscommunication techniques other than RF, for example IR communication. Insuch an embodiment, the RF module will be replaced by an appropriatemodule having the appropriate transmitter/receiver and may have alens/sensor instead of antenna 245.

Memory module 250 may be a combination of any type of short-term memorysuch as RAM, SRAM and DRAM etc. with long-term memory such as EPROM thatis used to support the operation of the controller 260. The memory 250may be used for storing the bootstrap program of controller 260, thecurrent program, setting parameters for monitoring equipment 101 and maybe used for intermediate buffer for data coming from/to the MedicalCenter 185 to/from the Monitoring equipments 101.

Controller 260 may be a computational device such as, but not limitedto, a general-purpose microprocessor, a DSP, a micro-controller or aspecial ASIC designed for that purpose. In some embodiments of thepresent invention Controller 260 is used to control the operation of theinternal modules of PWG 210, while PC 220 is used to control theoperation of system 200 as well as the wearable device 101 (FIG. 1). Inthose embodiments, PC 220 may analyze the medical information that iscoming from the wearable device 101 via PWG 210.

In other embodiments of the present invention the PC 220 is just used asan interface between PWG 210 and the Internet 180. In those embodimentsthe controller 260 may process the physiological measurements intomedical information before transferring the results to the call center185 via PC 220 and the Internet. In other embodiments of the presentinvention, processing the information may be done in the central server187 (FIG. 1).

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention may comprise anauthentication/encryption module 280. Authentication/encryption module280 may be used in order to protect the privacy of the information thatis stored in PWG 210.

PC 220 and/or the PWG 210 may be used as an intermediate buffer thatstores commands and/or data, which requested by the user using thesoftware running on the PC 220 or commands and/or data coming from theMedical Service center 185 (FIG. 1) to the monitoring equipment 101,until receiving a request from the monitoring equipment 101 to setcommunication with the PWG 210. The information coming from the MedicalCenter 185 and/or from the user may include data like, but not limitedto, type of measurements that are needed, setting the sleeping period,setting the internal clock of the monitoring equipment etc. Upon settingthe communication between the two, the monitoring equipment 101 asks thePWG 210 to retrieve the information that has been received from themedical center 185 and/or from the user during the recent sleepingperiod. In this method of operation, the PWG 210 and/or PC 220 is usedas an intermediate buffer for calls coming from both sides either fromthe monitoring equipment 101 or from the medical center 185. The PWG 210and/or PC 220 eliminate the need for the medical center as well as themonitoring equipment 101 to be on-line on the same time.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram illustrating the operation of PC 220and PWG 210 during the set up, after installing the PWG 210 in a USBport 212 (FIG. 2). Upon installing 310 PWG 210 in the USB socket, astandard USB configuration process 315 takes place. In this process PC220 configures the USB new device 210 and the mode of communication withUSB device 210. Although there are many different methods forconfiguring USB devices, for the purposes of clarity only and withoutintending to be limiting, the present invention is explained in greaterdetail below with regard to a method in which PC 220 issues commands andrequests to a USB device through one endpoint. PC 220 queries USB device210 through the other endpoint for status changes, and receives relatedpackets if any such packets are waiting to be received.

Then in step 320 PC 220 may check whether the driver for the new deviceexist in its library. If yes, PC 220 moves to step 335 and startsloading the software that performs the operation of PC 220. If not, PC210 indicates to the user 325 about the new device and waits 330 for theloading of the driver of the PWG 210 by the user. The loading may bedone from a portable media such as CD ROM or from the NVMM 240 b ofdevice 210 or through the Internet. In case of using the PWG 210 as thestorage media of the driver, the PWG 210 upon installing and turn on,emulates a USB flash memory disk device, which is known to PC 220. Thenthe user may load 330 the driver from PWG 210 and continue to step 335.

After loading 335, PC 220 reads 340 the file history and the personalinformation of the user from NVMM 240 c updates PWG 210 accordingly andsynchronizes with PWG 210. Then PC 220 prompts the user to identify himand perform an authentication protocol. If 350 the authentication issuccessful, the PC 210 continues to step 355 and calls the call center185, updates it with the current situation of the user and the currentcommunication link to the system 200 via PC 220. If the authenticationfails 350, PC 220 returns to step 340. This procedure may repeat forseveral times until the PC 220 sends a fail indication to the user.

Then PC 220 and PWG 210 may wait 360 for new call. The new call may comefrom the wearable device 101 (FIG. 1) or from the call center 185. Theresponse of PGW 210 with PC 220 to incoming calls may be like theresponse of the remote gateway that is disclosed in the incorporated PCTapplications (PCT/IL01/01187; PCT/IL02/00285; PCT/IL02/00995;PCT/IL02/00994) the contents of which are incorporated herein byreference.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary flow diagram illustrating the removal of the PWG210 from the USB port 212. When the user desires to remove the PWG 210from the PC 220, the user instructs PC 220 to disconnect 410 the PWG210. Then PC 220 updates 415 the call center 185 (FIG. 1) and thecentral server 187 (FIG. 1) about the disconnection and exchange therequired information before the disconnection. Then 420 PWG 210 isupdated regarding the incoming disconnection. PC 220 updates NVMM 240 c(FIG. 2) with the current information. If during this period of timethere is a valid connection with the wearable device 101, the PWG 210may update the wearable device too. Otherwise, the wearable device willbe updated upon the next installation of PWG 210.

After the updating, PC 220 may indicate 430 to the user that the PWG 210may be safety removed. And the task of PC 220 is terminated 440.

In the description and claims of the present application, each of theverbs, “comprise” “include” and “have”, and conjugates thereof, are usedto indicate that the object or objects of the verb are not necessarily acomplete listing of members, components, elements or parts of thesubject or subjects of the verb.

In this application the words “unit” and “module” are usedinterchangeably. Anything designated as a unit or module may be astand-alone unit or a specialized module. A unit or a module may bemodular or have modular aspects allowing it to be easily removed andreplaced with another similar unit or module. Each unit or module may beany one of, or any combination of, software, hardware, and/or firmware.

The present invention has been described using detailed descriptions ofembodiments thereof that are provided by way of example and are notintended to limit the scope of the invention. The described embodimentscomprise different features, not all of which are required in allembodiments of the invention. Some embodiments of the present inventionutilize only some of the features or possible combinations of thefeatures. Variations of embodiments of the present invention that aredescribed and embodiments of the present invention comprising differentcombinations of features noted in the described embodiments will occurto persons of the art. The scope of the invention is limited only by thefollowing claims.

1. A method for remotely monitoring a subject, the method implemented asexecutable program instructions stored in a storage medium and executedby a processor, both the storage medium and processor being associatedwith a host computer, the storage medium providing storage of personalinformation and/or setting parameters, the executable programinstructions, when executed, perform a process comprising the acts of:downloading the executable program instructions to the host computer;and in the host computer, executing the executable program instructionsto perform a process comprising the acts of: accessing at least one of:personal information of a user stored in said machine-readable storagemedium; and at least one setting parameter for a measuring device storedin said machine-readable storage medium; receiving physiological datapertaining to a user from a measuring device coupled to the hostcomputer through a wireless communication unit; processing the receivedphysiological data; and providing an alert.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein said method additionally comprising the act of: the hostcomputer interfacing with a remote server.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the act of downloading the executable program instructions tothe host computer is conducted over a Universal Serial Bus (USB)connector.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the personal information isused for at least one function selected from a group consisting of:authentication and encryption.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein thepersonal information contains medical data pertaining to a particularuser.
 6. A method for remotely monitoring a subject, the methodcomprising the acts of: a host computer interfacing to a storage mediumand downloading an executable program into the host computer; and thehost computer executing the executable program instructions to performthe acts of: interfacing to a measuring device over a wirelessinterface, the measuring device being associated with the subject;configuring the measuring device; receiving physiological datapertaining to the subject from the measuring device coupled; processingthe received physiological data; and providing an alert.
 7. The methodof claim 6, wherein a wireless gateway includes the wireless interfaceto the measuring device and the storage medium, further comprising theacts of: the wireless gateway emulating a nonvolatile memory devicewhile the host computer is downloading the executable program; and thewireless gateway operating in conjunction with the measuring device as amedical measuring system.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the wirelessgateway operates in conjunction with the measuring device as a medicalmeasuring system in response to control from the host computer executingthe downloaded executable program.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein thewireless gateway operates in conjunction with the measuring device as amedical measuring system in response to the completion of the hostcomputer downloading the executable program.
 10. A method of remotelymonitoring a subject, the method comprising the acts of: a host systeminterfacing to a gateway system to obtain an executable program; thehost system, in response to executing the executable program, performinga process comprising the acts of: obtaining operational data from thegateway system; and obtaining measurement data from the gateway system;the gateway system operating to perform the acts of: providing theexecutable program to the host system; interfacing to a measuring deviceover a wireless interface to obtain measurement data; and provide themeasurement data to the host system.
 11. The method of claim 10, furthercomprising the acts of: the gateway system emulating a memory storagedevice until the executable program is downloaded by the host system;and operating as a wireless interface and control system to a medicalmeasuring system including the measuring device subsequent to theexecutable program being downloaded by the host system.